Kamala Harris’ first digs from upcoming book: Here’s what Bay Area supporters, analysts think

Excerpts from former Vice President Kamala Harris s quasi-confessional new book published Wednesday seem to beg the question Is this the message of someone planning to run again for president Harris who lost her -day campaign against Donald Trump last fall has already informed she won t run next year for California governor to replace Gavin Newsom But another run for president in after a slim but dramatic loss to Trump Still uncertain It seems like she is edging away from running for president step by step disclosed Dan Schnur who teaches political communications at UC Berkeley and USC This type of positioning looks more like playing for history instead Harris majority of ardent supporters who have stood by her since her first short-lived run for president in feel otherwise believing the candor and honesty she displays in her book titled Days show what true leadership should look like It s just a message of someone who wants to tell the truth and be honest about her feelings mentioned Derreck Johnson of Oakland a longtime personal friend who has volunteered with her campaigns Harris the Oakland native who served as California s Attorney General and U S Senator before Joe Biden named her as his running mate in is set to release the book on Sept In excerpts circulated to The Atlantic Harris explained it was a mistake to allow Biden alone to decide whether to run for reelection that he may have been tired but still sharp and that her efforts to distinguish herself as vice president were undermined by a Biden club afraid of diminishing its aging leader During all those months of growing panic should I have informed Joe to consider not running Perhaps she wrote But the American people had chosen him before in the same matchup Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again In retrospect she wrote I think it was recklessness The stakes were entirely too high This wasn t a choice that should have been left to an individual s ego an individual s ambition She also took aim at Biden s club though not Biden himself for failing to defend her against media attacks When the stories were unfair or inaccurate the president s inner circle seemed fine with it Harris wrote Indeed it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more Their thinking was zero-sum she wrote If she s shining he s dimmed Although it may be understandable to express frustration with an expedited campaign that began when Biden pulled out in July last year this isn t the way a future President of the United States normally expresses themselves Schnur noted The excerpts also suggest that Harris is casting blame on others rather than herself and her own campaign analysts say There are particular fundamental practical aspects of her as a candidate that are equally challenging to the weight of former President Biden on her probable candidacy announced David McCuan a Sonoma State political science professor She failed to capitalize on key assignments like Vice President J D Vance did at the Munich Safeguard Conference earlier this year McCuan commented and made blunders during her presidential campaign including her remark that not a thing came to mind of what she would do differently than Biden as president and forgoing an invitation to comedian Joe Rogan s podcast where she might have picked up more voters among his millions of subscribers and followers The release of the book three years before the next presidential vote is cracking the door to a foreseen candidacy that I think is not there McCuan commented I think her moment has passed even though this is a traditional time that you would release a book if you were going to run for president Longtime Harris supporter Elisa Camahort Page a San Jose writer and entrepreneur says that excerpts of the book circulated so far show that Harris was very respectful of Biden and perhaps Democrats should learn from Republicans who primed Trump him for his second reelection attempt by supporting him in the interim four years I would spend the next four years pumping her up Camahort Page declared Lots of people don t win their first run for president Biden didn t Reagan didn t Lots of people try again and win and that would be following a playbook that the GOP has used successfully She doesn t blame Harris for losing to Trump though You know who I blame the greater part for Donald Trump being in office Camahort Page questioned The Republican Party that had multiple chances to walk away from him and didn t and the people who voted for him